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Clearing Jumps/Excessive Height


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I don't think this is a problem, but I am curious about this. I had Zipp at a trial earlier in the month and a professional photographer was there. Now Zipp rarely knocks bars, but I was almost flabbergasted when I saw photos of him clearing a bar by a good 6-8 inches and that is with him normally jumping 20" in one venue and 24" in another. There is one photo that I swear his belly is higher off the ground than the upright for the jump is tall. Other than possibly this costing time, is there anything to be worried about with him jumping so high? I guess my concern here is with injuries.

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Inefficient jumping is common in inexperienced dogs and also sometimes recurs in an ageing dog that may be starting to lose a bit of confidence in its ability to judge how high it needs to jump.

 

You don't say how tall your dog is. I have photos of my 14.5in terrier jumping over 2ft with the pole set at 15in. And my 16in mongrel started competition nearly 14 years ago switching between 30in and 20in jumps. When the rules changed her jump height changed to 18in. Neither ever suffered an injury and are now pretty sound for 13 and 15 years old.

 

Quite honestly I wouldn't worry about injury from jump height unless you suspect that there is something wrong with your dog.

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His official height measurement is 20.5" and he is a little over 5 YO now. He turns in some very fast run times when we do everything right.

 

I've had his hips checked and he got a clean bill of health from the vet. The only thing the vet could find was some very mild indications of arthritis in his knees and the vet said don't worry about that.

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Similar size to our older bc, now 10. He's jumped 26in all his career without problem and continues to be competitive at top level despite having been diagnosed with asymptomatic HD aged 7.

 

He's a rescue and we know nothing of his breeding or upbringing during the crucial developmental months. He hasn't been trained or treated by us any differently from our other dogs except that the ratio of his height to jump height means that he is jumping proportionately lower than most of the others.

 

He used to have a huge and high jump which just improved with experience but in the last year or so he has reverted to overjumping somewhat. I suspect that his vision isn't as acute as it used to be.

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If it were my dog, I would go back to basic foundational jumping training.

 

Yes, overjumping can cause problems. It isn't the jumping so much, as the LANDING. Dogs carry so much more weight on their front ends anyway, and jumping is going to exacerbate any problem.

Dealing with shoulder issues with my 9 yr old now, who has always been a very good jumper (as complimented by those who really do know, not just my opinion), I can tell you - it matters so much.

 

He also has HD, which has exhibited absolutely no symptoms his entire life. I've been trying to "protect" his front end as much as possible - but he loves agility, and has no "slow" in his vocabulary.

 

If your dog already shows indications of "mild" arthritis in his knees - yes, please do some re-training.

 

YMMV,

diane

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Lower jumps taken at speed can result in landing with front legs straight which sends the impact up into the shoulder. A rounded jumping style encouraged by higher jumps means that the whole front assembly flexes as it is designed to do and reduces the shock to the shoulder joint.

 

Never had a dog with a shoulder injury whatever height they've jumped, not even the tiny collie mix my daughter started with that competed over 30in until nearly 12. It's quite surprising how lightly some dogs land.

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Tessa tends to jump higher than she needs to. She always did, even when she jumped 20. I have seen pictures of her clearing the 24 inch cup.

 

But . . . never the entire stanchion. I would be concerned if I had a dog jumping that high, and would definitely do some re-work on the foundation training. I have found that to be a beneficial thing to do from time to time, anyway.

 

Not concerned about this: (But I would be if she were waaaay up higher than this)

 

1_1_1%20Med%20file_RockyOct_101715_Jackp

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Thanks all for the advice and information. I'll have a talk with my instructor and see what we can come up with. If I could figure out how to post some pictures I would to show what I am talking about, but I must have some kind of mental block I just can't figure out how to do it.

 

Again Thanks

 

Oftentimes the boards won't allow you to post pictures bigger than a certain size. I find it easiest to just upload them to an image hosting site and post them from there (I use imgur or photobucket, I don't know what other people do).

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My first Border Collie always overjumped. Just the way he was. He also tucked his front legs like a show jumper and somehow tucked his rear paws back also. I have a picture but it is too big for this site, I think. He never had lameness issues. My female Border used to get annoyed if the jump was too low (in her opinion) in agility class so she would jump the upright if it was a panel. I never had an issue with time. If they ran clean they were WAY under time.

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Sometimes I get the feeling that my 15" tall mutt likes to show off.

 

19350781030_7d88271f25.jpg

 

19538724715_fcfeacc131.jpg

 

When he's being serious he's much closer. He's very athletic though... 2nd day home I couldn't find him. Called for him and he came jumping about 8' out of a tree.

 

He also does this for fun.

 

18028047098_8d4d28c044.jpg

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Yeah, I mean my agility dog is 11" tall and I've had her go tearing off course to take 20" jumps (set for other dogs). When she's on the course and moving in a hurry her trajectory flattens out so she's only clearing the jumps by about 4-6" (and is jumping with a lot more extension than bouncing up and over), but I JUMP HIGH is definitely something she does sometimes for fun.


Maybe try some jump chutes and the like to see if you can get him down if it concerns you or you're worried about time loss?

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